I'd have to agree here. Its a bit outmatched--by everything. Classfying it as a gunboat really hurts with the bounty types who can now blow your transport up with a cap ship and make you stop trading for four hours as it is "technically" a gunboat.
And regarding the Recycler, I think personally just a little more power is really needed. I fought a morph the other day and had tried a SNAC (not anticipating a morph). I counted--if three shots hit my hull unshielded, I could not fire the SNAC because of the energy drain. That's a bit too weak.